Politics

Two Welsh politicians admit taking drugs


Stephen Kinnock (left) and Adam PriceImage copyright
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Stephen Kinnock and Adam Price both say they took drugs when they were younger

Two Welsh politicians have admitted to taking drugs in their youth.

Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price said: “As a gay man who first went clubbing in the 1990s it would be a bit of a surprise if I hadn’t taken drugs.”

Labour backbench MP Stephen Kinnock, who represents Aberavon, admitted “smoking weed” at high school.

The panellists on the BBC’s Question Time were asked if they had taken drugs, after Michael Gove admitted taking cocaine 20 years ago.

Mr Price said he was “not proud” of it, adding: “But I’m not going to lie about it either.”

“15 million people in this country have taken illegal drugs… that’s got to be a message to us that prohibition has failed in the most dismal way possible,” he said.

Mr Kinnock, son of the former Labour leader Neil Kinnock, said he went to a comprehensive school in west London and “as far as I could see about half of the intake in that school was smoking weed and I was part of that half.

“And I was also part of… what some call the second summer of love in early 1990s – house music, raves – and I was also a part of that.

“The war on drugs is being lost… causing tremendous disruption in society, heartbreak.”

Former Northern Ireland Secretary Theresa Villiers said she “had about three attempts of cannabis at university, only the last time I managed to inhale and was sick”.

“So I never touched it again and wouldn’t recommend to anyone else.”

She said although her approach to drug policy “has always been pragmatic” and she was open to reform, she was reluctant to advocate legalisation of cannabis because of the “very serious health downsides”.

Mr Gove has admitted he was “fortunate” to avoid jail after using cocaine several times 20 years ago.



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